10.31.2017

Once in a while I hear from Steve Kroschel, the anti-pharma conspiracy theorist behind such zany films as The Gerson Miracle, Dying to Have Known, The Beautiful Truth, The Grounded, and Heal for Free, which all promote some variation of the profoundly dangerous position that diet alone can treat all disease, and should be preferred over emergency medical care. About 5 years ago he paid Skeptoid Media $1500 to have me do a brief appearance via Skype in The Grounded to advise that no, simply being barefoot will not heal you of all disease via mystical Mother Earth frequencies.

Every so often, previous donors from whom we haven’t heard in a while can opt to receive a reminder of what we’re currently up to, and see if we can win back their support. Kroschel received one today. Hilarity ensued. / read more…

10.16.2017

After an extended break from blogging here on Skeptoid, a recent run of commercials on television offering to check your “cellular age” has inspired my interest enough to bring back a skeptical eye to boutique health claims. The advertisements promote a genetic test, TeloYears, with this claim: / read more…

9.8.2017

Every so often, someone comes forward having claimed to have translated the Voynich Manuscript, the famous 15th century nonsense book that has intrigued codebreakers and linguists over the centuries. The most common explanation for the book is that it is carefully constructed nonsense, made by monks knowledgeable in linguistics, for a wealthy customer (probably an astrologer), perhaps to impress his clients by showing them that he had access to mystical ancient wisdom. All the analysis done to date is consistent with this, and no claimed translation has ever stood up to scrutiny.

Today, news outlets are trumpeting yet another claimed solution, this one by Nicholas Gibbs, an artist and historian. It should be made clear that, despite what the popular interpretation seems to be of this new solution, Gibbs makes no representation to having translated it. According to his analysis, every letter in every word represents an abbreviated word. Judging by the illustrations, he believes the book to be about women’s health. His solution is highly vague and makes no verifiable translations. / read more…

6.22.2017

Well, that didn’t take long. It’s only been about six months since Ric Gillespie and TIGHAR made their last rounds hoaxing all the world’s news agencies with his Amelia Earhart claims, and he’s already at it again. This time he has persuaded National Geographic to finance an expedition with bone-sniffing dogs — to look for her remains on an island that we know she could not possibly have gone to, but that is otherwise littered with bones from hundreds of people who lived and worked and died on the island for more than a century. / read more…

5.1.2017

Occasionally—actually, far more often than I’d like—I stumble across a clear example of how uninspired reporting and clickbait journalism culture can lead to support for uncritical thinking and the advancement of fringe beliefs.

Original Facebook post from WDIV Local 4 (Detroit, MI)

This time, the example comes from my own home state. Recently, Detroit TV news outlet WDIV posted the following article to their Facebook page: “Old Ghostly Orphanage Being Turned Into Apartments.” They tagged it with the question, “So, anybody want to live in an old haunted orphanage?”

The building in question is the Holy Family Orphanage in Marquette, MI. Built a century ago, the orphanage has a mixed history. It was clearly a place the locals viewed as a benefit to the community; however, the building has roots as one of the many orphanages used to house displaced Native American children. The orphanage is said to have been the location for stories of the type typical to old Catholic orphanages: cruel nuns, Medieval punishments, and even child deaths due to neglect or malice. These latter rumors are the seeds for the ghost stories that some people tell about the building.

4.28.2017

True confessions time: I love me some cryptids—love, love, love them. I watched In Search Of…obsessively when I was a kid, and read everything I could find about any and all creatures that I could find. Bigfoot, the Skunk Ape, the Abominable Snowman, Ogopogo, Champ, the Beast of Gevaudan, the Loveland Frog, and—of course—the Loch Ness Monster. Because I also loved me some dinosaurs, the idea that there might be a plesiosaur living in Scotland was exciting. These days, I know enough to be skeptical about all of them. Where are the bodies? How do groups of large animals avoid detection. Or, if there’s only one, how did it live so long. But I still love reading about them, and imagining what they might be like, and news articles about them still catch my eye. So, it shouldn’t be any shock that the following article caught my eye when it showed up in my feed:

4.21.2017

‘Sweet youth,
Tell me why, sad and sighing, thou dost rove
These pleasent realms? I pray thee speak me sooth
What is thy name?’ He said, ‘My name is Love.’
Then straight the first did turn himself to me
And cried, ‘He lieth, for his name is Shame,
But I am Love, and I was wont to be
Alone in this fair garden, till he came
Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.’
Then sighing, said the other, ‘Have thy will,
I am the love that dare not speak its name.’

Now, as I’ve had to say with distressing frequency thanks to the topics I choose to write on, Skeptoid is not a political organization. We’re not here to tell you to vote one way or another, or to back any specific candidate or party. That’s not what we do. Sexuality is a highly politicized topic, but we just look at the evidence, and encourage you to do the same. So, with that in mind, let’s examine the question:

4.14.2017

Sexual orientation and gender identity are all over the news right now, and have been for… well, since ever. It’s a politically charged topic, and everyone—everyone—has an opinion on the subject. Sexuality is a powerful current running through questions of ethics and morality, religious belief and cultural expectations, and survival and propagation of the species. “Everything in the world is about sex except sex,” as Oscar Wilde is reputed to have said. “Sex is about power.”

Despite this—or, perhaps, because of this—there are a lot of misconceptions about the subject. A whole lot of misconceptions. As skeptics, it’s important that we try to step outside our own biases and preconceptions and look at the actual evidence for a topic, even one so important and integral to our species as sexuality. Or, perhaps, especially one so important.

Let’s talk about sex, baby
Let’s talk about you and me
Let’s talk about all the good things
And the bad things that may be
Let’s talk about sex
Let’s talk about sex
Let’s talk about sex
Let’s talk about sex

3.31.2017

Last time, which was sadly muchlongerago thanI intended, I was writing about whether or not vaccines work. Which, of course, they do. Every disease we have a vaccine for has seen the rate of infection (and the death rate) decline by several orders of magnitude since the vaccine was introduced. Really, this isn’t even a discussion we should be having anymore.

Except that we still have memes—like the one above—floating around. Because we still have people deliberately pushing an anti-science agenda, who are trying to put their mad ideology above human life. Why? I genuinely don’t understand. But rather than dwell on that, let’s move to the other half of that meme:

“How are unvaccinated children a danger to vaccinated children?”

“Old fool! Why, there is a large patch in the hollow of his left breast as bare as a snail out of its shell!”

And, equally awesomely, Brian and Jon are super friendly and approachable, and love engaging with us on social media. (This is soooo important, especially considering Mythbusters’ potential for impact on society and the world.) And recently, Brian asked me the following question: / read more…